Published: Friday, 15th March, 2002 00:00
Suspected measles cases spark new MMR plea
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AN Inverclyde doctor has urged all parents to get their children vaccinated with the MMR jab after two suspected measles cases in Renfrewshire and two cases in Fife.
Dr Mustafa Kapasi, a GP at Greenock Health Centre, said the cases showed there are falling levels of immunisation against the disease.
He said: "This is not good news. If one child dies that is one child too many. All children should be vaccinated."
Dr Kapasi, who is a member of the BMA's GP committee, added that parents of children who had not been vaccinated should not send their children to nurseries.
"Children who have been vaccinated can still get the disease, albeit in a milder form. So parents whose children have not been vaccinated are putting other children at risk," he said.
A spokesman for Argyll and Clyde Health Board said tests on the patients, who became ill at the beginning of March, were currently being analysed at a laboratory in England. He would not say what age the patients are or where they live in Renfrewshire.
The results of the tests will be available in two weeks.
Campaigners against the MMR jab claim it can cause autism.
However, doctors say there is no evidence to confirm that this is the case.
Earlier this year Dr Kapasi urged the prime minister Tony Blair to say whether his son Leo had been given the controversial vaccine.
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